Raised by the Streets, Rescued by Grace

RAISED BY THE STREETS RESCUED BY GRACE 9 Chapter 1 The Sound Above Market ◆ The train thundered over Market Street before the sirens arrived. Mack Carter heard both from the narrow kitchen of his mother’s rowhouse, but neither sound made him look up. The elevated train had shaken the glasses in that cabinet for most of his life. Sirens were just another kind of weather in West Philadelphia—near enough to notice, common enough to ignore. His phone vibrated across the table. Once. Twice. Then three times in a row. Mack wiped his hands on his black hoodie and stared at the name glowing on the screen. Tiana. His sister never called that late unless their mother needed something. “What happened?” he asked. Tiana’s breath came fast through the speaker. Behind it, voices pushed against one another, and somebody was crying. “Mack, where are you?” “At Ma’s.” “Stay there.” “Tiana.” He stood so quickly that the chair legs scraped the floor. “Tell me.” The pause lasted only a second, but it divided his life into everything before it and everything after. “It’s Dre.” Mack gripped the edge of the table. Through the front window he could see wet pavement shining beneath the